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They laid people off because their "great savior" processor came up years behind schedule (originally supposed to be out in 2009) and when it finally did it came up falling short of the competition (and even their previous generation in some cases). All those corporate buyers that were waiting to see what the "Messiah" chip design could pull off finally pulled the trigger on their corporate purchases and went intel. They simply got tired of waiting for AMD to be competitive again.

They laid people off because their "great savior" processor came up years behind schedule (originally supposed to be out in 2009) and when it finally did it came up falling short of the competition (and even their previous generation in some cases). All those corporate buyers that were waiting to see what the "Messiah" chip design could pull off finally pulled the trigger on their corporate purchases and went intel. They simply got tired of waiting for AMD to be competitive again.
Very much reminiscent of how many other tech companies died off.
I said this was going to happen back on October 19th.http://techreport.com/discussions.x/21857?post=590168

in my point of view bulldozer isn't wrong and isn't bad but they better should sell it to desktop users with deactivated CMP
because windows7 don't know how to manage this cpu.
they also fail because no socket g34 desktop board because they can sell a 16core opteron as a deactivated CMP desktop 8core version.

CMP for windows7 is just wrong and CMP for desktop users is wrong.

if amd brings a overclocking socket g34 system with an 16core bulldozer with turned of all CMP means 8cores turne off they will sell cpus to "windows7" customers

if amd brings a overclocking socket g34 system with an 16core bulldozer with turned of all CMP means 8cores turne off they will sell cpus to "windows7" customers

Na what they need to do in a hurry is create a "stop the hemorrhaging" respin of the X6's. Drop in the new extension support, drop it to 32 nm, dump the DDR2 controller (to save on silicon, simplify the design, and reduce TDP further) and ramp up it's clock speeds. It would be a "cheap" and effective way to leverage what they know works until they can fix BD into being a competitive processor.

AMD's official press release (looks like they are already making excuses as to why they will probably not achieve the goals set by this cut):

AMD Optimizes Cost Structure to Enhance Competitiveness and Accelerate Growth
Operational savings of more than $200 million in 2012 designed to accelerate future growth in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud

SUNNYVALE, Calif. —11/3/2011

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a restructuring plan and implementation of operational efficiency initiatives designed to strengthen the company's competitive positioning. AMD expects that these combined actions will create a more competitive cost structure and rebalance the company's global workforce skillsets, helping AMD to continue delivering industry-leading products while improving productivity, reducing time-to-market and better aligning with key industry trends that are expected to drive growth.

"Reducing our cost structure and focusing our global workforce on key growth opportunities will strengthen AMD's competitiveness and allow us to aggressively pursue a balanced set of strategic activities designed to accelerate future growth," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "The actions we are taking are designed to improve our ability to consistently address the needs of our global customer base and stake leadership positions in lower power, emerging markets and the cloud."

AMD expects that the restructuring plan will result operational savings, primarily in operating expense, of approximately $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and $118 million in 2012, primarily through a reduction of its global workforce by approximately 10% and the termination of existing contractual commitments. The workforce reduction will occur across all functions globally and is expected to be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Based on anticipated savings from the restructuring plan, AMD expects fourth quarter 2011 operating expenses will be approximately $610 million.

As a result of implementing efficiencies across the company's operations, AMD expects to save approximately $90 million in 2012 operating expenses in addition to the restructuring plan savings, resulting in more than $200 million of expected combined operational savings in 2012.

The company expects to reinvest a significant portion of the savings to fund initiatives designed to accelerate AMD's strategies for lower power, emerging markets, and the cloud.

The company's actions pursuant to the restructuring plan will take place primarily during fourth quarter of 2011, with some restructuring plan activities extending into 2012. The company currently estimates that it will record restructuring expense in the fourth quarter of 2011 and in 2012 of approximately $101 million and $4 million, respectively. Of the total restructuring expense, approximately $56 million will be future cash expenditures in 2011, $33 million will be future cash expenditures in 2012 and $15 million will be future cash expenditures in 2013.
About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD's server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD's superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.
Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning AMD's restructuring plan and operational efficiency initiatives; the timing of these actions; anticipated restructuring charges, cash expenditures and operational savings as well as improved productivity and time-to-market as a result of the implementation of these actions; future strategic initiatives and growth opportunities; and fourth quarter of 2011 operating expenses, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "expects," "believes," "plans," "intends," "projects," and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation's pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities targeting the company's business will prevent attainment of the company's current plans; the company will be unable to develop, launch and ramp new products and technologies in the volumes and mix required by the market and at mature yields on a timely basis; GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be unable to manufacture the company's products on a timely basis in sufficient quantities and using competitive technologies; the company will be unable to obtain sufficient manufacturing capacity or components to meet demand for its products or will under-utilize its commitment with respect to GLOBALFOUNDRIES' microprocessor manufacturing facilities; the company will be unable to transition its products to advanced manufacturing process technologies in a timely and effective way; global business and economic conditions will not continue to improve or will worsen resulting in lower than currently expected demand; demand for computers and consumer electronics products and, in turn, demand for the company's products will be lower than currently expected; customers stop buying the company's products or materially reduce their demand for its products; the company will require additional funding and may not be able to raise funds on favorable terms or at all; there will be unexpected variations in market growth and demand for the company's products and technologies in light of the product mix that it may have available at any particular time or a decline in demand; and the company will be unable to maintain the level of investment in research and development that is required to remain competitive. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 2, 2011.

Na what they need to do in a hurry is create a "stop the hemorrhaging" respin of the X6's. Drop in the new extension support, drop it to 32 nm, dump the DDR2 controller (to save on silicon, simplify the design, and reduce TDP further) and ramp up it's clock speeds. It would be a "cheap" and effective way to leverage what they know works until they can fix BD into being a competitive processor.

you can do have the same with the bulldozer just deactivate CMP.

sure then you have a cpu with low integer performance but the desktop users don't care about integer.

Still sinkin. AMD should just apply for not-for-profit status. That way I could just write my shares off as charitable donations.

I bought in near the recent-term low at $4.66/share. I lost faith in any sort of long-term positive outlook after the Bulldozer launch, and I started getting nervous with the stock fluctuations. I sold at $5.03, three days before the stock hit $6.00

Anyhoo, I wonder if these layoffs are going to affect their linux drivers? I would think the lowly engineers would be some of the first people to go, so long as management and marketing all get to keep their jobs.

Anyhoo, I wonder if these layoffs are going to affect their linux drivers? I would think the lowly engineers would be some of the first people to go, so long as management and marketing all get to keep their jobs.

This is what I'm worried about too. The windows driver teams have hundreds of people on them from what we've heard, and the OSS developers are far fewer in number. It sucks for anyone to have to lose their job, but it would hurt the OSS dev group much more to lose someone (especiallly since I'm not sure that AMD even has 10 developers working on open-source drivers).